Summer Fellowship

llaria Giglioli is a PhD candidate in Geography at the University of California Berkeley where she is currently researching cross-Mediterranean migration between North Africa and Italy. More generally, she is interested in the relationship between the organization of space and the production and reproduction of inequality. She has previously carried out research on struggles around access to natural resources, particularly in settler colonial contexts.

Raj Bhargava is a second year undergraduate at UC Berkeley majoring in Economics and minoring in both Public Policy and Creative Writing. His passions lie in urban inequalities of opportunity, and especially gentrification and racialized disparities in community involvement and education. Raj is a contributor to the Haas Institute's Just Public Finance program and researches the financial structuring of public institutions through the Great Recession as well as the broader trend of municipal financialization. 

Kemi Bello explores storytelling - about ideas, people and community - through the intersections of words, data, design and technology. Kemi was born in Lagos, Nigeria, and migrated to the U.S. at the age of six. Upon learning she was undocumented in high school, she joined the immigrant rights movement as a community organizer. Kemi has also conducted research and policy analysis for the labor rights movement and fundraised at the intersection of arts & culture and social change. She is a math and economics alumni of the University of Houston and aspiring data scientist.

Kian Vesteinsson is a rising senior at Pomona College and is contributing to the Just Public Finance program at HIFIS. He is a double major in Politics and Religious Studies, with a coursework focus on the dynamics of race and religion in the post-9/11 United States. Kian wants to explore how we can make academic knowledge accessible and actionable, especially as relating to equity in education, systems of immigrant integration, and life in the city.

Jaylina Vay is a Summer Research Fellow in the Haas Institute Equity Metrics Program where she is working on the Equity Indices project which develops research that explores how various index models conceptualizes equity and well-being in order to better serve and support the work of the Haas Institute. Jaylina is a first-generation undergraduate student at Mills College studying Sociology with a minor in Asian Studies. Her thesis will explore the relationship between public transportation and supermarket accessibility in East Oakland.

Jenna Shelton is a rising senior at UC Berkeley and will graduate from UC Berkeley in Fall 2016 with a major in Conservation and Resource Studies with a concentration in food access and equity and a minor in Public Policy. She is most passionate about using policy as a tool for creating change and empowering marginalized community. Formerly, she served as Policy Director on the Board of Directors for a 200-member non-profit public benefit corporation.

Basima Sisemore completed her M.A. in Research Architecture from Goldsmiths, University of London, where her research focused on the intersections of space, power, resistance and reproductive rights of Palestinian political prisoners. As a Summer Research Fellow, Basima is supporting the development of the “Thinking Ahead” author speaker series as part of the Leap Forward Project, and is contributing to a report on anti-Muslim and anti-Islam U.S. legislation for the Global Justice program. Basima received her B.A.

Sarah Omer is a rising senior at UC Berkeley majoring in Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on Global Social and Economic Development specific to the African continent. She studies Interdisciplinary Studies because it allows her to explore various aspects of development and the causes of "underdevelopment" in "third world" countries. Through her customized major, Sara accounts for the social, economic, health, business, political, environmental and any other factors that contribute to a state's development and wellbeing.

Enjoli Hall is from Buffalo, New York and is a Master of Urban Planning Candidate at University at Buffalo, where she works as a research assistant in Dr. Samina Raja’s Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab and focuses on housing, community and economic development. At Haas Institute, Enjoli is providing research support to the California Community Partnerships program with projects on housing policy and narratives of displacement in the city of Richmond.

Winne Luo is a rising sophomore double majoring in Public Health and Statistics at UC Berkeley. She has interests in health disparities and disease in populations, and the place-based, socioeconomic, and political determinants of health. Previously, Winne has worked with the Office of Equity and Inclusion to analyze diversity in high school admissions to UC Berkeley. She hopes to use insights derived from data to further health equity and social justice.

Thomas Matthew is a J.D. candidate at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall), where he was awarded the Boalt Hall Dean's Fellowship. His research interests include examining solutions to methodological tensions among progressive liberals in California. Thomas' academic work is heavily influenced by his desire to give legal and political agency to underserved communities worldwide. Prior to joining the Haas Institute, Thomas attended Amherst College where he received his Bachelor of Arts in Sociology.

Tanvi Rajgaria is a rising senior at Pomona College, with a major in Economics and minor in Religious Studies. Her focus is on bringing together human narratives - historical, anthropological, and philosophical - into data and modeling framework development. Tanvi herself has a long history of working as a bridging liaison between institutions and communities, looking forward to her role as At-Large Student Representative on the Board of Trustees Finance Committee for Pomona College.

Rhonda Itaoui is in the final year of a PhD program in Social Sciences at Western Sydney University in Australia, and a Visiting Scholar at the UC Berkeley Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project.

Jasmine Guraya is currently double majoring in Psychology and International Economics & Migration at UC Berkeley and anticipates graduating in Fall 2017. She has a wide array of interests and is intrigued by how and why people reason the way they do, how the human brain functions, and ponders on the role of international events and economic labor theories on migration.

Minahil Khan received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Advocacy and Argumentation at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Minahil served as a William J. Clinton Fellow for Service in India where she worked on a women’s livelihood initiative at the Aga Khan Foundation’s Delhi office. She is currently earning her JD at the Georgetown University Law Center.

EJ Toppin is a Master of Public Policy Candidate at the University of California, Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy. As a Summer Fellow at the Haas Institute, he is engaged in efforts to address housing affordability and the issue of displacement in Richmond, California as well as Greater Detroit, Michigan's water contamination and infrastructure crisis. Prior to returning to school for graduate studies, EJ worked as a legislative aide on environment, agriculture, and energy issues in the United States Senate.